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Reading time 5:49This rain could not have come at a better time. KGHL Meteorologist Ed McIntosh says we are actually ahead of the averages and last year too. That’s good news for agriculture. KGHL National Ag Day programming Tuesday did a pretty good job describing how much of the Montana economy comes from ag. From sugar in the cookies, flour in your bread, to the meat on the table, a farmer or rancher made that happen. More than ONE BILLION dollars of ag products come from the KGHL coverage area in Montana and Wyoming.

Salesperson’s breakfast is tomorrow, NCAA playoffs with the Griz tonight, and Palm Sunday makes this weekend really busy. It’s hard for Bobcats to root for Griz, but I’ll make an exception tonight. Just to make it fun, predict the total points of tonight’s game and I’ll buy you a steak dinner for the effort. Send your guess before tip off tonight. My guess is 127. Closest guess wins.

This week, Coke’s Facebook results, Lonnie at the Northern Grand Opening, Banner Blindness (applies to billboards too), the ONLY way your business can survive, KGHL’s new Android streaming app, some last minute shopping, Lonnie’s Facebook page, and an infographic on meeting lunacy

I hope you find this week’s issue useful. Each week, I skim and review a ton of marketing ideas and blogs so you don’t have to spend your time. Thanks for reading.

Ray Massie, General Manager KGHL

Bernie’s Diner Opens with Lonnie BellThe Northern Hotel is open! Lonnie Bell and Ed McIntosh helped open Bernie’s Diner Sunday morning with a live broadcast. The diner opened at 6am for the very first time. Jessica Oe and her staff at Bernie’s had a great first day from what I could tell. What a HUGE cup of coffee they served!

Coca-Cola Study: Online Buzz Has NO Effect on Sales

A Coca-Cola Co. study finds online buzz has no measurable impact on short-term sales, said a company executive in a presentation at the Advertising Research Foundation’s Re:think 2013 conference in New York today.

It’s a stunning admission for a company who’s flagship brand has 61.5 million fans, more than any other brand on Facebook. But Eric Schmidt, senior manager-marketing strategy and insights at Coca-Cola, isn’t giving up on buzz just yet. And he cautioned against reading too much into the research, noting that it covers only buzz, not sharing, video views or other aspects of social media.

But when Coca-Cola put buzz sentiment data into the same analytical framework it uses to evaluate other digital media, Mr. Schmidt said, “We didn’t see any statistically significant relationship between our buzz and our short-term sales.”

Coke research was far more favorable for digital display advertising, which it found on average to be 90% as effective as TV at generating sales on a per-impression basis, Mr. Schmidt said. Radio was below TV but above search. Search itself was 50% as effective as TV – about the same as out-of-home.

“Digital ROI has to be a financial measure that allows us a consistent measurement of business performance over time,” he said, and also lets marketers make informed tradeoffs between media.

Uh-Oh! I have only 120 shopping days until irrelevancy! So far this year, I bought a new car for myself and a used car for my son. Still remaining on the list: SUV for my wife, a few suits for me (luckily someone has a buy one get 3 or 4 free deal), and new TVs for the den and our bedroom. Why the shopping spree you ask? In just 120 days I turn 55, and immediately become irrelevant to many advertisers much more intelligent than me. Oh sure, they love me now that I’m within that magical 25 – 54 age demographic. But now that I’m about to turn 55, they could care less about me. 120 days to use the internet (I’m going to miss it), and search for those advertisers who were wooing me during those important years when I was 25-34 and didn’t have two nickels to rub together. Hope their advertising investments paid off and they’re still in business. The good news for all of these advertisers who will no longer want my business is that they won’t waste any of their marketing dollars on me. You see, in just 120 days I will achieve the trifecta of advertiser no-no’s: 55+, African American, and often listen to “controversial” talk show programming!

Imagine that, the one year when I anticipate the highest earning potential of my life, and the only companies who want my business sell V***gra, death insurance, and “Active Adult” home communities. Of course, I won’t be able to furnish the house because the furniture companies stopped advertising to me after I was 49.

Alas… the good news is that all of the discretionary income I anticipate amassing from advertisers who no longer want my business will be well-spent. You see, my son will be firmly entrenched in the 18 – 34 demographic for some time now. Lord knows he can’t afford any of the retailers who are fighting so desperately for his business. Relevancy once again! I hope they don’t realize some old black guy who listens to AM radio is funding his spending. They may not let him buy either!

(On a serious note: advertisers, please realize that age demographics don’t buy goods and services, people do. Find out who really does buy your products and learn how to speak to them. Consumer behavior usually crosses, age, racial, and political lines. )

Among their predictions was that Facebook paid advertising will continue to be “a flop” with most local service businesses. They also said national brands with multiple locations will

transfer more of their marketing dollars to local marketing and away from branding.

There are two key items to pay attention to in these predictions. The first is that the promise of new media, while seductive will continue to disappoint.

The second is that big companies – your competitors – will be investing more money in advertising and marketing.

That means if you don’t want to be eaten by all the “wolves at your door,” you need to beef up your special bond with your customers, clients, or patients NOW.

The NEW 24 (% Growth That Is)

That’s the increase in streaming audience for KGHL after release of the new 790 KGHL Now app in the Google Play store. The app is free and works on Android phones only right now. The Apple version of the player will come soon. Click the link to get the app for yourself.

If you didn’t know, all advertisers on KGHL get streaming included with their contracts.

After being asked to recall the last display ad they saw, only 14% could name the company, the brand or the product, suggesting that brands are wasting millions of dollars in ads that consumers don’t remember.

The Infolinks study analyzing banner blindness reveals that 60% couldn’t recall the last display ad they saw. The survey analyzes responses from U.S.-based consumers in December from all genders, ages, income and education levels.

Relevance remains a key challenge, and 3.65% of respondents who remembered the last ad they viewed did not remember the context. About 80% felt the last ad they saw was not relevant to them. Only 2.8% of respondents said they thought the ads they saw met their needs to either answer a question or provide more information.

There are similarities between the way the U.S. Transportation Security Administration, airport security screeners, glaze over liquid-filled bottles in carry-on luggage and the banner ads that consumers searching for information never see. Infolinks CEO Dave Zinman believes improving the 0.1% click-through rates on banner ads requires choosing nontraditional and memorable ad locations to increase the recall by consumers typically bombarded with messages.

Zinman’s advice is to avoid delivering ads without first identifying user intent, and serve fewer ads to reduce clutter on pages — suggesting that brands are willing to pay more for premium, uncluttered experiences.

First Impressions Can Be WAY Off the Mark

Lonnie Bell is a legend in Billings. A list of career firsts would take all of this e-mail. Your first impression might be Lonnie’s audience would be older. You would be wrong. Take a look at the graph from Lonnie’s Facebook page.

Lonnie’s audience is even younger than the market average. Even more astounding are these results with the lack of promotion for Lonnie’s page. You won’t hear Lonnie hyping “like me on Facebook”.

Advance Promotion WorksI loved this quote from an e-mail sent to me by Brian Engle of Pioneer Meats of Big Timber. Pioneer does a tremendous job of supporting local FFA and youth charities in addition to making a great brat. I’ve always talked about a great advantage of using radio is the ability to drive customers to your special event. Brian advertises his appearances at events like the Celtic Festival on KGHL.“We had a good day selling stuff. We even had people refer to the radio ad. Imagine that.”

Don’t Suck At Meetings

How many meetings do you have at your work? The real cost of meetings is the huge time suck they can become. Here’s an infographic from Small Business Trends.com laying out the cost of these long meetings.